When the news broke that Spider-Man was going to finally come home to Marvel, and be incorporated into their Cinematic Universe, fans rejoiced. But they weren’t alone. Marvel honcho Kevin Feige sounds like he’s just as psyched to have Peter Parker in the fold, and in a talk with IGN he spoke about what it means to have the reins to Spidey. He also revealed a bit about the behind-the-scenes machinations that will make bringing the character in to play with the rest of the MCU roster easier than you think.

What the deal with Sony meant to him and Marvel:

“Making that agreement … was great, and was really amazing, and on a personal level making these movies, it means a lot because I think we can do great things with Spider-Man. I think Spider-man can serve a great purpose in our universe and that’s where he belongs. That was what was unique about him in the comics was not that he was the only superhero in the world; it’s that he was a totally different kind of superhero when compared against all the other ones in the Marvel universe at the time.”

When the agreement came about, some fans wondered exactly how the studio would go about slipping Spider-Man into their plans. After all, Marvel notoriously has this grand master plan that includes films for the next several years, and Spider-Man was not in those plans. Or so we thought…

“This has been a dream of ours for a long time. We always had contingency plans, which we always do anyway. Are we going to be able to make another deal with this actor? If so, we’re going to do this; if not, we’re going to do this. If we get the rights to a certain character, that’s great; we’re going to do this. If not, we’re going to do this. We always sort of operate under those various alternate timelines available and ready to shift if something happens.”

So it turns out Marvel had a contingency plan for Spider-Man all along. Just in case.

Lastly, Feige says he’s not worried about Spider-Man joining in on the fun rather late in the game. There have been two Avengers movies so far, and all this groundwork laid for so many other characters. While it would have been nice to have a franchise player like Spider-Man from the beginning, Feige says that when it comes to bringing in the Web Slinger “it’s not about when you show up, it’s about what you do once you’re there.”

Spider-Man will make his first, official Marvel appearance next year when Captain America: Civil War comes out on May 6, 2016.

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